The Fall (Book 5): Exodus in Black Read Online Free Page A

itself in the hollow eyes of the people in the bus, it still gave her hope. At her lowest points, Emily had given herself over to nihilism. For all her capabilities, she had faltered in ways the children and adults around her hadn’t.
    That knowledge kept her from arguing the point. Andrea was right; they got farther from the threat every second, and so far no one was chasing them. Doing anything beyond sitting there and being safe would be based on her ego and anger.
    So Emily defaulted to her base setting. She’d keep herself safe so when the time came to stand up in a real fight, she could protect the folks around her. Defending those with stronger hearts appealed to her on a deep level. Probably because few people had ever stood up for her.
    The thought reminded her what she’d been doing when the attack happened. Kell got away, but…
    “Did anyone see what happened to Mason?” she asked, glancing at the haggard faces surrounding her. “He was out in the yard with us.”
    Heads shook. No one spoke. A few of them looked guilty, as if saving their own lives was less important than noticing what one person out of six dozen was doing.
    “It’s fine. He’ll be fine. Making it through shit like this is kind of his thing.”
    Her voice sounded more confident than she felt, however. There had been a moment, just after seeing Laura fall but before she ducked away, when a break in the haze had allowed Emily a brief but clear view of the land on the other side of the compound.
    The shooters might as well have been invisible, surely firing from a great distance, but their vehicles were not. A handful of them, with bodies moving. At a guess she’d have said twenty or thirty men. Every one wearing uniform black.
    Marauders wore whatever they could find, usually layers of whatever might serve as armor. There was little doubt in her mind that these attackers were related to Rebound, the old-world government project designed to help rebuild from a catastrophe. In the years since The Fall, the organization had quietly grown into a powerful, pervasive force along the east coast. They’d set up research stations where they studied captive survivors. All well and good but for the part where their scientists killed people to dissect their brains. Oh, and the kidnapping. Can’t forget that part.
    Rebound built a small, stable civilization that was growing at an alarming rate. They had the manpower and resources of a mid-sized city. A captive from one of their strike teams laid it all out. Emily likened it to two warring tribes of cavemen. The only problem was that her side used spears and slings, while the enemy had guns and body armor. Mason swore the difference between what the Union—of which their compound had been part—and Rebound wasn’t as bad as all that.
    She hoped he was right, but feared underestimating the enemy might have cost them everything.

Mason
     
     
     
     
    Getting captured was the easy part. Mason managed it within five minutes of the first shot fired. They had been five incredibly busy and eventful minutes, however. He been vital in creating many of the contingencies his people would use in case of a serious attack, which made seeing them enacted as simple as moving from one place to another without getting shot.
    The trick to being taken rather than killed was to make yourself stand out to the enemy without looking like a threat. If these were soldiers—or mercenaries, more likely—for Rebound, they probably had some idea who he was.
    At six foot four and with every inch of exposed skin covered in thick, twisting scars, Mason was memorable. Doubly so considering how many of Rebound’s people he had killed the summer before.
    After tripping a few switches and passing a few warnings, Mason had thrown himself to the ground near a drain and crawled through it. There was a protective grate inside, but he knew the trick to removing it. Once outside the fence, he sprinted north. That gave the enemy, who was